It is no secret that BD has zero sympathy for anyone who has the unmitigated chutzpah to park their car in a privately owned parking lot and walk off to patronize another business, without any regard for the business owning the parking lot. If you don't have the sense to read the signs, you deserve what you get, and what you will pay when you pick up your car at the towing lot.

Many of these idiots believe it's their god-given right to park anywhere they want, justifying their logic by saying, The business is on Lower Greenville, it is what it is.

These are the same people who think our residential streets belong to them, even if they live in Plano or McKinney. Welcome to the wonderful world of Resident Parking Only, guys.

Towing happens dozens of times every weekend on Lower Greenville: Bar patrons are desperate to find a free parking space  - god forbid they should pay $10 to park on a secure lot - so they park on the Taco Cabana, Blockbuster, Dodie's or CVS parking lot. They wander away, not realizing that someone is watching them leave. Five minutes later their car is gone - probably to South Dallas, to a place you don't want to visit in the daytime, let alone at 4am.

Update 6pm - DPD says 'bat' robberies were committed by same persons, asks area residents for help and tips

Dallas Morning News, May 9, 2008

Dallas police are looking for suspects in two robberies of young women along Greenville Avenue early Thursday morning.

Police say the incidents might be related since the robbers in both cases were armed with objects – a bat in one case – as they approached their victims, taking a wallet, a purse, money and credit and debit cards. The robberies were within several blocks of each other between midnight and 2 a.m., according to police reports.

The Plan Commission voted to approve the Lucky's SUP with some new - and unusual - requirements.

BD's blog of the meeting follows after the jump.

We'll post a summary and some YouTube videos as quick as we can edit them.

Update 930 am Saturday - Mr. Harvey Richman, co-owner of the Big Wong/Dodies Property, confirmed that his brother (and the other co-owners) Marc Richman agreed to let these scammers collect money for parking on the Big Wong lot after 11pm, in return for a payment of $500 per month. This deal breaks an agreement with neighborhood residents on the other side of Lower Greenville that he would not let anyone operate a pay-parking service on this parking lot. It also violates a long list of Dallas City Code issues regarding the secondary use of a property for more than the one business outlined in the Certificate of Occupancy. Let's not forget the insurance issues either. Thankfully, there are deed restrictions that prohibit pay-parking services on the parking lot behind the restaurants, but for the right price the Richman's would probably let it go pay to park. The towing service says they will continue to tow any car that parks on the lot until they are notified to stop.

The newest parking scam on Lower Greenville continued without interruption Friday evening. Four males who claimed to have permission to sell parking spaces at Bottle & Brew, Big Wong and Corner Stop returned to their posts for a few hours. This is the same group photographed by BD last weekend at Bottle & Brew (link).

We're a few days behind on posting this story, but the local blogs are buzzing about Madison Partners (fka Dunhill Properties) plans to build an environmentally-certified mixed-use office complex on the Arcadia site (click on the photo to see the screen-saver size image).

How does a 20,000 square foot, multi-story retail, bar and and restaurant building on lowest Greenville sound? The site, which is being developed by UCR, is where the Arcadia Theater stood before it burned a few years ago.